Ground works
Submitted by JustinIsaf on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 16:41.
Last updated on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 14:10.
Vital Stats
ongoing project
People Impacted:
300People Involved: 30
Project Video
The Problem
Lunenburg Nova Scotia is a rural community on the south shore of the Atlantic provinces. At one time the town was a prosperous fishing village but since the collapse of the fisheries the community has become dependent on two manufacturing companies and summer tourism. This community is an aging one and the two local schools are slated for closure (see http://www.southshorenow.ca/archives/072908/news/index024.php).
The demographics and the economic realities of the community result in a town where young people are valued but not necessarily provided with the programs and tools necessary to inspire them to become active leaders in their communities. The Global Education Association can provide relief from these issues as the director and program coordinator are young people themselves working from the ground up. The local community has shown interest in the youth and the youth directed activities evolving from the organization.
Why It's Important
The GroundWorks garden is a project that strives to involve youth with the community and the community with youth. The project aims to act as a breeding ground for nourishing experiences engaged learning and positive partnerships for Lunenburg community members and organizations. In order to do this the project focuses on incorporating mentorship opportunities inter-generational workshops and school aged peer mentorship programs. More specifically the project will provide skill based workshops for school aged and older community members in order to connect them through common interests and common work. The workshops will focus on ecological balance and gardening skills and each of these workshops will connect the local small steps to the global possibilities and interconnections. The workshops are accessible to all as they are advertised in the schools and promoted through the women’s centre and the local paper. The costs are free (or nominal costs for any take home projects) and the workshops are geared to both school age and older community members. We believe that through common work and common interest people young and old will learn to value each other the community and the environment as a whole.
The Plan Of Action
The GroundWorks project is already a work in process. We currently have three raised beds that have acted as the site for several workshops in the past including; raised bed gardening potato and herb harvesting Herb storage backyard composting and vermin-composting workshops. Each of these programs has been successful in terms of participation learning outcomes and diversity or participants involved. We can and will continue to prepare and present these workshops to the community but of late have found that costs limit us from being able to present more work oriented projects. Our goals include preparing and presenting one workshop a month using volunteer presenters. We plan to keep costs either free or very nominal in order to reduce the boundaries for community members. Therefore we are looking for funding of and average of approximately 100 dollars per workshop (1 per month for 5 months). These workshops will include a. rain barrel building b. cold frame building c. a raised bed workshop for bulbs d. spouts and spouting e. seeds and lightboxes. These projects will begin in November (with planning beginning in October) and will finish in March.
Project Updates
11/20/08
Update: In the last month we have held both a bulb planting workshop, which brought together elementary and high school students, and our winterizing workshop, with high school students and the local Woman's Center, to get the garden ready for the long winter months ahead (we had our first snow last night!)
Our last harvest from the garden saw herbs, potatoes, red and green peppers, garlic and onions go to homes and dinner tables throughout the community. My house saw the harvest turned into Aloo Parathas...the cooking wasn't as successful as the growing though.
We're gearing up to fly out to Senegal for our West Africa Project at the end of the month, but planning is well under way here at the Global Education Association to move our winter community workshops inside and keep the ball rolling year round.
It has been great to see people come together across generational gaps and show that local community gardening can have some real, and yummy, impacts on people's lives and that you don't need to fly food in from thousands of miles away to make a dish from half way around the world.04/14/09
Update: http://www.scribd.com/doc/14226816/Poster-for-Spring-Workshop-20091
In March the Global Education Association held the first Seed Exchange getting ready for the planting season this year.
Together with our participant partners and the green grant from DoSomething.org we have 5 more workshops coming up in the next two months.
We estimate that the attendance of these workshops will be 30-50 people per workshop and reaching many more through re-teaching the skills. Our youngest participants are 10 with our oldest being 65+
The schedule for upcoming workshops is linked above and photos will be uploaded as the workshops unfold.Additional hours volunteered: 50
Additional people involved: 60
Location
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